CM Sarma: Need of hour is sustained effort against drug trafficking

Correspondent

Shillong: Assam Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday underscored the scale and complexity of drug trafficking in the region, emphasizing that traffickers use multiple methods, including drones, to smuggle narcotics. He asserted that the fight against drugs requires continuous efforts, arrests, and seizures to dismantle the traffickers’ economic networks.

“Still, I believe that Assam and Meghalaya drug traffickers use carriers, but they have other methodologies. They drop through drones also; even if you are not proximate to the golden triangle, they can still fly drones to any location. So it is a big game; it’s not just a discussion between you and me that is going to be solved,” Sarma stated.

When asked about the possibility of a joint task force, Sarma stressed that any coordinated action should be overseen by the central government. “In our country, the joint action has always been calibrated by the Government of India; states coming together under the leadership of the central government police force is good for us. If both states collaborated on their own without the involvement of the central government, that may not be good, so the idea is that both Meghalaya and Assam and Assam and Nagaland can work together under the supervision of the Government of India,” he said.

Acknowledging the scale of the crisis, Sarma noted that traffickers operate with various tactics, making detection challenging. “Kingpins are not here; they are across the border. They may not be in India also, so they only push drugs through various agents. Sometimes, they come with big quantities; sometimes, they come with a very small quantity you cannot even detect. But 10 people travel together in a railway train to Delhi, and everybody has 1/2 g of heroin in their pockets; it is very difficult, so they have all the modus operandi; they can even take it by walking also. If a person from Guwahati starts walking to Shillong with drugs in his pocket, it is very difficult to find out, so they apply various methodologies; police have to be better than them,” he explained.

Reiterating that the battle against drugs is global, Sarma called for sustained vigilance. “It’s not that only Assam and Meghalaya are fighting; the world is fighting against the drugs menace, and it’s a big business. This is a long battle,” he remarked.

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